Is Neuroscience A Key to Successful Teaching?
In short, I think the answer is yes, but let's take a closer look at things:
Educators are not experts in this field, though our job is to teach; teaching specifically deals with how the brain interacts with knowledge and ideas (or how it learns). Therefore, it is arguable that educators should be looking to neuroscience to develop their practice. The good news here is that educational neuroscience is a growing field of study that many teachers and administrators are beginning to delve into. However, I do think we need to be careful here as neuroscience itself is a complicated, diverse, and emerging area of study (I see simlarities between this and how gene theory has evolved from single genes controlling aspects of life to a more epigenetic view of things).
- Neuroscience is "a branch (as neurophysiology) of the life sciences that deals with the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, or molecular biology of nerves and nervous tissue and especially with their relation to behaviour and learning" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neuroscience, March 2016).
Though I am new in this area, and definitely not well versed, I am starting to delve into this field of study and what I am finding is incredible.
Non-Uniformity in Learning
For example, one of the findings from recent neuroscience that I believe can directly impact education is the basis for how the brain learns. For example, it has long been thought that all eight year olds should be able to learn the same things at the same time: in fact, this is what our education system is based on (grades directly proportional to age and the pass / fail model associated to each grade or course). However, it is just as well known by anyone who teaches that this belief that all children of a similar age can learn the same things in the same time frame is not the case. Pick any classroom at any grade level and you will probably see a bell curve of learning in any discipline (arithmetic, literature, social skill, etc.). In fact, neuroscientist have long known that learning across disciplines is not uniform (https://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ddl/articlesCopy/FischerDaley_ExecProcesses2006.pdf) and that the view that knowledge can be seen as a step by step process up a ladder is not realistically how our brain works. A more accurate view is that learning is not uniform, but instead dynamic; it is not steps up a ladder, but a intertwined creation of a web. This is true both across disciplines and within them.
Social Brains
Secondly, as Louis Cozolino writes in his book The Social Neuroscience of Education, our brains "learn in a naturalistic setting in the context of meaningful group and interpersonal interactions". This harkens back to Harlow's Monkey experiments from the mid 1900's; however, Cozolino further argues that social attachment is not important just for our mental well-being or physical health, but also for our learning. In other words, if educators do not make caring connections with their students, the students will not reach their academic potentials.
Take Away
In essence, even these two simple ideas can radically change the way a school runs and the way education can take place. First, schools must understand that grade specific tasks and knowledge is not realistic. I will admit, however, that the push in education right now does address this issue as more and more schools are working on more student-centred and individualized approaches to assessment, but there is much more work to be done and many more educational walls to tear down; for example, do we need grades at all? Can schools begin to use cross-grade rubrics with more long term projects and accomplishments or benchmarks? I believe they can, but it would radically change the way schools run and what our graduation terms look like. With respect to the second topic, that of the social aspect of learning, schools need to foster teacher-student relationships. This cannot be done in a classroom climate that is lecture based (when would the teacher really get to know the child other than through the hand-in assessments). Instead, administrators and schools must build into the school day the opportunity for teachers to interact with students on a more one-to-one basis. This can easily be done with a more mentor-based system that allows for teachers to move through the student body while they work. Project-based models work well for this, especially if they are cross grade and cross curricular.
Doing this does take planning and a different focus, but if we are going to see education really work for our students, then it is a change in focus that needs to happen.
